Hyundai-KiaMotors,SK,LG,Lotte)account for more than half of the total
GDP of Korea. In the 2008 – 10 period under the Lee Myong-bak government,
the sales of these conglomerates almost doubled, from around KRW 3 trillion to
6 trillion.^64 Increasing pressure of social confrontation may produce unexpected
political instability in the Korean constitutional reality.
Lawlessness?
Democratization diminishes the pressure for irrational obedience to illegitimate
political power. However, oppression by illegitimate power and the effective
authority of legitimate power need to be distinguished. One side effect of
democratization in Korea is confusion between the two, which is widespread in
every field of social life. Public administration faces increasing difficulties in
implementing government policies due to resistance by factional interests. The
main beneficiaries of this unregulated lawless circumstance are large organizations
with the real power to safeguard their selfish interests, such as trade unions, big
business corporations, mass media, and so on. Therefore, the legitimacy of law
itself and its fair enforcement is essential so that lawless disobedience and legitim-
ate disobedience can be set apart. The lack of firm democratic procedures prevents
people from giving their trust to enacted law. The proliferation of “conviction
politics” rather than “consensus politics” hinders the main political parties from
setting up consensual legislative procedures, and as a result much of the main
legislative agenda causes serious political conflict between the ruling party and the
opposition. Some representative examples include political confrontations sur-
rounding private-school laws and the National Security Act under the Roh Moo-
hyun administration, and those related to media laws under the Lee Myong-bak
administration.
Another problem in Korean political affairs was the Lee Myong-bak adminis-
tration’s strict but arbitrary policy on law and order. Relying on various
legal regulations allowing police to abusively block peaceful assembly and
demonstration – for example, picketing and press conferences – police and
prosecutors undermined freedom of expression. Ironically enough, it should be
mentioned that under President Lee Myong-bak, those who stressed the
importance of law and order did not hesitate to violate or ignore legal
order. For example, in 2010 , Assemblyman Cho Jun-hyuk of the ruling
GNP defied the court’s order not to release the names of teachers affiliated
with the National Teachers Union, on the ground that such an uncovering of
union members might infringe their privacy and freedom of association,
though his criticism of this union had largely focused upon their illegal
(^64) Sky E-Daily Internet edition on February 25 , 2012 ,atwww.skyedaily.com/news/news_view.
html?ID= 2954.